Friday in Central Park
Jun. 5th, 2009 07:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maxcelcatAfter a pretty hectic week in NY, I decided I'd take it a bit easy for my last few days.
The folks I was staying with actually headed out of town on the Friday - it was a long weekend with a holiday on the Monday - having hired a car in New Jersey 'cause it's cheaper. I think they headed out to Connecticut.
Leaving me with the awesome responsibility of feeding their fish! Which also meant I had to say goodbye to the lovely Yasmeen, whom I will use as a template for children of my own some day :-)
They'd be getting back from their long weekend about the time I'd be getting on the plane out of the country.
So I started my Friday by taking a walk through Central Park. I started around West 74th Street, near the Dakota Building, famous for it's resident, one John Lennon. And indeed Yoko Ono, who still lives there, but didn't respond to my promptings on Twitter.
Near said building in Central Park is Strawberry Fields, an area of the park dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. There didn't seem to be much to it when I walked past, except a lot of tourists watching a couple buskers(?) doing acoustic versions of Beatles songs.
Wait, I think I've missed something here... Ah yes, that morning I went and did a bit of shopping for bicycle gear at a place near where I was staying. Picked up a nice brass bell and some rain gear. Then I wandered over to Central Park, past Martin Luther King High School, which has a big sculpture out the front dedicated to him.
Where was I? Ah yes, walking through Central Park. I wandered down to one end of the lake they have there, then up a something called The Mall, which is a long straight path through the middle of the park. Tree lined, nice. Gave some money to a rather deft juggler. Saw one squirrel, but was too busy to engage with me.
Then I followed a path up to the south east corner of the park, which ended up dumping me on 5th Avenue, right near the Apple store. I'd promised some friends on Twitter I'd pop into it, so I did, via the amusing round glass elevator. It's in a large basement.
And half of freakin' New York was down there! It was soooooooo packed, I could barely move. The must ship a lot of merchandise from there. I looked at some prices on things, but just couldn't come at what they were asking, still. I took some photos, which look, strangely, like they're of a crowded basement store!
By this time, it was actually getting late in the afternoon - I'd spent a chunk of the middle of the day doing bugger all, which was nice. So I hoped on a train down to Times Square (again). I hate Times Square... Well, hate it too strong a word for it... It's generally full of milling tourists trying to take photos of moving billboards, a flock of folks trying to sell them shit at the same time. And surrounded by overpriced restaurants, mostly chains. But it is also on the way to a lot of places, close to a number of theatres, and has a place where you can get cheap tickets to Broadway shows. Which was why I was there - I wanted to get tickets to a musical. Avenue Q - more on that later.
I did spent a small amount of time in one store on Times Square - the Levi shop. Found a pair of black 501 jeans, which are impossible to find in Australia for some reason.
I dashed madly across town down to Canal Street, looking for a piercing and tattoo supply place I found on the internets. Canal Street is one of the old streets in town, and is a bit mental. It's all fake Rollex and other designer stuff being flogged from tiny booth-like shops. I kept my hand on my wallet there. And of course the piercing supply place was shut - who would have thought on a Friday evening at 7PM! This is New York, what kind of shop shuts that early???
Anyway, then I rushed back to Times Square to find the theatre that Avenue Q was playing in...
The folks I was staying with actually headed out of town on the Friday - it was a long weekend with a holiday on the Monday - having hired a car in New Jersey 'cause it's cheaper. I think they headed out to Connecticut.
Leaving me with the awesome responsibility of feeding their fish! Which also meant I had to say goodbye to the lovely Yasmeen, whom I will use as a template for children of my own some day :-)
They'd be getting back from their long weekend about the time I'd be getting on the plane out of the country.
So I started my Friday by taking a walk through Central Park. I started around West 74th Street, near the Dakota Building, famous for it's resident, one John Lennon. And indeed Yoko Ono, who still lives there, but didn't respond to my promptings on Twitter.
Near said building in Central Park is Strawberry Fields, an area of the park dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. There didn't seem to be much to it when I walked past, except a lot of tourists watching a couple buskers(?) doing acoustic versions of Beatles songs.
Wait, I think I've missed something here... Ah yes, that morning I went and did a bit of shopping for bicycle gear at a place near where I was staying. Picked up a nice brass bell and some rain gear. Then I wandered over to Central Park, past Martin Luther King High School, which has a big sculpture out the front dedicated to him.
Where was I? Ah yes, walking through Central Park. I wandered down to one end of the lake they have there, then up a something called The Mall, which is a long straight path through the middle of the park. Tree lined, nice. Gave some money to a rather deft juggler. Saw one squirrel, but was too busy to engage with me.
Then I followed a path up to the south east corner of the park, which ended up dumping me on 5th Avenue, right near the Apple store. I'd promised some friends on Twitter I'd pop into it, so I did, via the amusing round glass elevator. It's in a large basement.
And half of freakin' New York was down there! It was soooooooo packed, I could barely move. The must ship a lot of merchandise from there. I looked at some prices on things, but just couldn't come at what they were asking, still. I took some photos, which look, strangely, like they're of a crowded basement store!
By this time, it was actually getting late in the afternoon - I'd spent a chunk of the middle of the day doing bugger all, which was nice. So I hoped on a train down to Times Square (again). I hate Times Square... Well, hate it too strong a word for it... It's generally full of milling tourists trying to take photos of moving billboards, a flock of folks trying to sell them shit at the same time. And surrounded by overpriced restaurants, mostly chains. But it is also on the way to a lot of places, close to a number of theatres, and has a place where you can get cheap tickets to Broadway shows. Which was why I was there - I wanted to get tickets to a musical. Avenue Q - more on that later.
I did spent a small amount of time in one store on Times Square - the Levi shop. Found a pair of black 501 jeans, which are impossible to find in Australia for some reason.
I dashed madly across town down to Canal Street, looking for a piercing and tattoo supply place I found on the internets. Canal Street is one of the old streets in town, and is a bit mental. It's all fake Rollex and other designer stuff being flogged from tiny booth-like shops. I kept my hand on my wallet there. And of course the piercing supply place was shut - who would have thought on a Friday evening at 7PM! This is New York, what kind of shop shuts that early???
Anyway, then I rushed back to Times Square to find the theatre that Avenue Q was playing in...